Your stories of owner neglect.

[Bud_One]

Ironically the worst offender I've ever came across was a dealership parts dept and one of their delivery trucks at a dealership I worked at in the late 90s/ early 2000s.
One day they brought in their 94' Reg Cab Chevy long bed with the 4.3L V6 . 200kish miles at the time.
We pulled the drain plug and at first nothing came out , we waited a couple of minutes and eventually it came out in a slime/gooish form.
Only enough to fill a cup or two. Looked like really dark burnt chocolate pudding. We filled it with Kendall 10W30 (our house oil at the time)and changed the filter.
Same goo in it as well. Truck was still running in 2006 when I left.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: clinebarger


LOL, My mother in law bought a brand new 1998 Plymouth Neon & never changed the oil.....Made it to a little over 40,000 miles before the camshaft seized & broke the timing belt.

I ended up swapping the engine for a new long block, I had to reuse the oil pan & valve cover.....The old engine left a horrible smell in my shop that took weeks to dissipate!


I had a 1995 Neon manual transmission. I bought it for $200 as a beater for college because it needed an oil change and a head-gasket (Common to do at the same time and that frequently

) I put 100,000km on it and it never cost me a dime other than the head gasket.

When I left college the paint had all but flaked off (Quality Chrysler Paint from that Era) so I decided not to change the oil. I made it about 35,000km and the engine developed a really bad rod-knock. So I drained the oil and revved the [censored] out of the engine until it seized. The smell of the oil that slowly poured out was quite foul. So I can relate.

The engine died that day with 280,000km which is impressive for that era Neon.

 

[exShuttlemech]

My friends Father who lived 3 houses down the hill, changed water heaters for a living. He bought a new Chrysler New Yorker every year, and let his Wife drive it for the first year. Then he would use it for water heater replacement duty for the second year, trading it in after that, WITH NEVER CHANGING THE OIL. I think that they had about 65K on them and smoked at trade-in time.

 

[Kuato]

I bought a '77 Plymouth Volare wagon with the Slant Six for a steal - $100 from my brother's high school auto shop. It had around 80k on it IIRC. Needed a head gasket, which we put on. The old oil was not sludged, it was solid crusted inside the galleries and inside the head about 3/8" (1cm) thick. I don't know how many oil changes it had, but it was simply not enough; the car was beat to #*@#$^ otherwise also.

We vacuumed as much as we could out, but a chunk must have fallen into the engine as we lost a main bearing within 100 miles or so.

Good thing the car was a replacement for a '74 Plymouth that had gotten totaled a couple days before...with the exact same engine. One weekend to swap everything over. I ran that "new" motor for 2 years and 80000 miles before donating the wagon back to the same auto shop. All in all, a great deal.

 

[Nick1994]

My grandparent's bought a 2003 Buick Rendezvous AWD used in 2004. They are very hard on cars, and they gave it to my mom in 2012, who is also extremely hard on cars. It always had the oil changed regularly, but it began to overheat in 2013. Other than brakes, tires, and a water pump, the entire car was original. It had the original Dexcool in it and my grandfather topped it off with green antifreeze after we did a water pump. Radiator cap also stuck closed so the overflow didn't work. Intake manifold gaskets went (was a 3.4L...) so it was losing antifreeze a lot. Like, 3-4 gallons a month, not in the oil though. My mom just topped off with water, it still overheated in traffic so she tried to be careful. Then in traffic once she looked down and the gauge was pegged at max hot, there was no shoulder to pull over on so she had to drive a few miles to a parking lot. It blew the head gasket because the thermostat stuck closed. Exhaust gases getting into the coolant, upper radiator hose could never be burped because it was a constant flow of exhaust gases. She kept on driving it with a new thermostat. It had 4 mismatched tires, totally worn out suspension, a broken windshield, a howling rear differential when doing a u turn for 75k miles, rear windows didn't work, a screaming but functional a/c compressor, no glove box, no cabin air filter for maximum flow, the car was a total mess. The outer part of the harmonic balancer once fell off and my brother hammered it back on. Then 6 months later it fell off again so I put on a new one. I had done so many pad slaps with Duralast Gold pads (lifetime warranty) that it wore an extreme groove in the rotors once, especially after metal on metal.

My mom also told me the brakes made noise. Well, she wasn't kidding. It was so far metal on metal that the fins were almost showing, the caliper extended so far out it was leaking and I had to replace it. It had no brake pressure, so I had to drive it with the parking brake. It ate a battery like clockwork at 18 months it's entire life. When retired at 145k miles, it had the original 3 rear spark plugs and wires because I couldn't get them off. Front 3 were done at 100k

It was a piece of junk on wheels, but it handled the abuse like a champ.

 

[BAJA_05]

My 1988 Nissan Stanza that I bought off my GF at the time. Her Mother bought it new. That 16 valve I whipped the living snot out of on a daily basis. Super reliable car that I sold to a friend for 200 bucks & his GF somehow got a hole in the radiator & blew it up.

 

[The_Nuke]

I had a '96 2 door Tahoe that I let the brakes get so bad on they stopped stopping and just made horrible grinding noises. Drove it for a couple weeks still just using the trans downahifts and parking brake to slow and stop whsn nexessary.

 

[SeaJay]

It is one thing to change the oil on a regular schedule and to fix or repair things as they break or wear out.

The OCD driven attention to over the top maintenance (often justified by those as "cheap insurance") is quite another thing.

 

[camrydriver111]

Continued to drive a car while overheating.

Checked the overfill tank for coolant level but not the radiator (didn't know any better).

I think it ended up blowing the head gasket.

 

[PandaBear]

Inlaw's 93 Escort.

No rubber left on all windshield wipers
All 4 plug wires corroded and turn into powder
All 4 struts blew and bouncing around
Every body panel has pealing paint
Tears on seat belt
AC not working
Misfire above 60mph (dirty MAF)
Wrong plugs with worn out electrodes (single platinum)
Bad engine mount
Bald tires
Missing hub caps
Burnt brake lights
Pealing rubber coating on steel (manufacturing issues)
Crushed bumper covers.

Basically, all used up.

 

[Duffyjr]

A guy at work was telling us his experience with buying a new gas powered sidewalk edger at Menard's last spring. Said he got it all put together and started using it and a couple minutes later it stops running. Goes to pull the rope to start it and it's locked up, turns out he forgot to put oil in it. He goes on to say how Menard's gave him a new one so thinking he wasn't going to make that mistake again he fills it full of oil until it won't hold any more. I wonder how long it will last with that much oil in it. And to think he runs some pretty sophisticated equipment at work is mind blowing.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: Duffyjr
I wonder how long it will last with that much oil in it. And to think he runs some pretty sophisticated equipment at work is mind blowing.


It is really amazing to me how people who are so educated (PhD's in engineering, etc) fail to read owners manuals and over look seemingly simple things.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Had some neighbors once that were the worst I've ever seen. Started noticing the vehicles in like 2002ish, they had a BMW 3 series that was probably 2 or 3 years old and then an Infiniti QX4, it was pretty new too. Absolutely trashed inside and out. Long about 04 they got a new 5 series. They let their kids hit it with sticks, left food in it, draw on the seats with sharpie, the trunklid was a work bench since their garage was hoarder's central. They also got an Odyssey at this time and it faced the same treatment. They had squirrels living in both of them. Then they got a new Expedition EL when those came out and it was a few weeks before I saw the same thing happening to it. They were pretty well off and the vehicles when new were always very nice and fully loaded.

I would bet the vehicles hardly saw oil changes, they might have gotten at least that. If they were content with squirrels living the cars, then you know they probably didn't sweat fluid changes. I think the only reason they weren't ever stranded from neglect or had major repair bills was because they vehicles were always pretty new.

 

[SatinSilver]

I took the Matrix in for an oil change on Monday to a new place that sends coupons for Valvoline oil changes. Anyway the guy goes out to record the mileage and retrieve the vin. He comments on the new tires. Then I think he thought there was a mistake and asked me if that was really an 2005. I just detailed it in June so it looks pretty clean and shiny. I then told him it sits outside all the time as well. Which really blew him away.

Ok so sort of the opposite of the thread title. Wanted to give a little positive story.

 

[jeepman3071]

Dated a girl in college who had a brand new Audi A4 her parents bought her. This was around 2008. Her parents were pretty well off. The car was always trashed. Curb rash on every wheel, never washed, back seat full of clothes, etc. She never had the oil changed, she only added oil when the oil pressure light popped on. It was a nice car, but I hated going anywhere in it knowing at anytime the engine might just give up from probably having 1 quart of oil in it.

After 2 years, the factory tires were junk, so instead of replacing the tires her parents traded it in on a brand new one. Those few years taught me to be very careful when buying used cars. I'm sure the place where they traded it in just changed the oil, cleaned it up, and put it on the lot as a gently used 2 year old A4 with 30k miles and brand new tires.

Another one:

One of my friends in high school/college had a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with the 5.2 V8. The Jeep was given to him by his parents and had 80k or so miles on it. It was in mint condition. He trashed it completely in 3 years and 35,000 miles. The Jeep was full-time AWD, and he used to pull out of work with all four tires spinning on dry asphalt. He took it "off-road" numerous times, ripped off the oil pan, etc. He also hit a deer doing 85 mph. When he sold the Jeep it still drove, but needed a new transfer case and transmission due to the abuse.

He now drives a modified GMC Duramax truck that is on it's third transmission. Probably the hardest driver on vehicles that I know.